Summer GamesMontreal 1976Canada17 July - 1 August 1976

Host NationCanada

Sports21

Duration17 July - 1 August 1976

Competition Venues27

Competing Athletes6084

Competing Nations92

DAYS SINCE

Montreal 1976

15,652DAYS

About Games

The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad took place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. For the Athens to Ottawa stage of the torch relay the Olympic flame travelled by air, but not by plane. Instead, a sensor used to detect ionized particles of the Flame turned them into coded impulses. The impulses were transmitted by satellite to Ottawa where they activated a laser beam which recreated the Olympic flame in its original shape.

The Soviet Union finished as the most successful nation at the Montreal Games, winning 49 gold medals, followed by the German Democratic Republic with nine fewer, and the United States third - the first time an American team had not finished in the top two nations. Great Britain came 13th overall in the medal table.